1949

1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1949 calendar).

Events

January

• January 2 - Luis Muñoz Marín became the first democratically elected Governor of Puerto Rico.
• January 4 - RMS Caronia of the Cunard Line departs Southampton for New York on her maiden voyage
• January 4 - February 22 - Series of winter storms in Nebraska, Wyoming, South Dakota, Utah, Colorado and Nevada - winds of up to 72 mph - tens of thousands of cattle and sheep perish
• January 5 - U.S. President Harry S. Truman unveils his Fair Deal program.
• January 11 - Los Angeles, California receives its first recorded snowfall.
• January 17 - The first Volkswagen Beetle to arrive in the United States, a 1948 model, is brought over to New York by Dutch businessman Ben Pon. Unable to interest dealers or importers in the Volkswagen, Pon sells the sample car to pay his travel expenses. Only two 1949 models will be sold in America. that year, convincing Volkswagen chairman Heinrich Nordhoff that the car has no future in the U.S. (The VW Beetle goes on to become the greatest automobile phenomenon in American history.)
• January 20 - U.S. President Harry S. Truman begins his full term.
• January 22 - Communist Party of China forces enter Peking.
• January 25 - The first Emmy Awards are presented at the Hollywood Athletic Club.
• January 25 - In the first Israeli election, David Ben-Gurion becomes Prime Minister.
• January 26 - Australian Citizenship comes into being.

February

• February 1 - Rationing of clothes ends in Britain.
• February 8 - Cardinal Mindszenty of Hungary is sentenced to life imprisonment for treason against the Hungarian Communist government.
• February 10 - Arthur Miller's play Death of a Salesman premiered in New York City.
• February 12 - The Vatican announces the excommunication of all persons involved in the trial and conviction of Cardinal Mindszenty.
• February 14 - The Knesset (Israeli parliament) first convenes.
• February 14 - Antonio Carmona is re-elected president of Portugal for lack of an opposing candidate.
• February 19 - Ezra Pound is awarded the first Bollingen Prize in poetry by the Bollingen Foundation and Yale University.
• February 22 - Grady the Cow, a 1,200-pound cow gets stuck inside a silo on a farm in Yukon, Oklahoma and garners national media attention.

March

NATO formed, April 1949

• March 1 - World heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis retires
• March 1 - Indonesia seizes Yogyakarta from the Dutch.
• March 2 - The B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II under Captain James Gallagher lands in Fort Worth, Texas after completing the first non-stop around-the-world airplane flight. It was refueled in flight four times.
• March 3 - The Tucker automobile Corporation folds.
• March 12 - The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, Denver & Rio Grande Western and Western Pacific railroads inaugurate the California Zephyr passenger train between Chicago and Los Angeles, California as the first train to feature Vista Dome cars as regular equipment.
• March 25 - The extensive deportation campaign was conducted in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The Soviet authorities deported more than 92,000 people from Baltics to remote areas of the Soviet Union.
• March 26 - The first half of Giuseppe Verdi's opera Aida, conducted by legendary conductor Arturo Toscanini, and performed in concert (i.e. no scenery or costumes), is telecast by NBC, live from Studio 8H at Rockefeller Center. The second half will be telecast a week later. This will be the only complete opera that Toscanini will ever conduct on television.
• March 28 - United States Secretary of Defense James Forrestal resigns suddenly.
• March 31 - The former British colony of Newfoundland joins Canada as its 10th province.

April

• April 1 - Éire leaves the British Commonwealth and becomes the Republic of Ireland.
• April 1 - The Tokyo Stock Exchange is founded.
• April 4 - The North Atlantic Treaty is signed in Washington, DC, creating the NATO defense alliance.
• April 7 - Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific (musical), starring Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza, opens on Broadway and goes on to become R&H's second longest-running musical. It becomes an instant classic of the musical theatre. The score's biggest hit is the song Some Enchanted Evening.
• April 14 - The day the N'Ko alphabet is held to have been completed by Solomana Kante.
• April 18 - Éire formally became the Republic of Ireland.
• April 20 - Royal Navy frigate HMS Amethyst (U16) goes up the Yangtze River to evacuate British Commonwealth refugees escaping the advance of the Mao's communist forces. Under heavy fire it runs aground off Rose Island. After an aborted rescue attempt at April 26 it anchors 10 miles upstream. Negotiations with the communist forces to let the ship leave drag on for weeks
• April 23 - Chinese communist troops take Nanking
• April 29 - The News Review reveals that neither Selhurst College nor its headmaster H. Rochester Sneath exist.

May

• May 1 - Nereid, a moon of Neptune, is discovered by Gerard P. Kuiper.
• May 5 - The Council of Europe is founded by the signing of the Treaty of London.
• May 9 - Rainier III of Monaco becomes Prince of Monaco, upon the death of his maternal grandfather Louis II.
• May 11 - Israel is admitted to the U.N. as its 59th member.
• May 11 - Siam changes its name to Thailand.
• May 12 - Cold War: The Soviet Union lifts its Blockade of Berlin.
• May 20 - The AFSA (predecessor of the NSA) is established.
• May 22 - After two months in Bethesda Naval Hospital, James Forrestal commits suicide, under circumstances that seem suspicious to many.
• May 23 - The Federal Republic of Germany is established.
• EDSAC, the first stored-program computer, begins operation at Cambridge University.

June-July

• June 2 - Transjordan becomes kingdom of Jordan
• June 6 - With the passage of the Bodh Gaya Temple Act by the Indian government, Mahabodhi Temple is restored to partial Buddhist control.
• June 8 - Red Scare: Such celebrities as Helen Keller, Dorothy Parker, Danny Kaye, Fredric March, John Garfield, Paul Muni and Edward G. Robinson are named in an FBI report as Communist Party members.
• June 8 - George Orwell's book Nineteen Eighty-Four is published.
• June 24 - First Television Western, Hopalong Cassidy, airs on NBC.
• June 29 - Last US troops withdraw from South Korea
• June 29 - Dock strike in the UK
• June 29 - Beginning of Apartheid - The South African Citizenship Act suspends the granting of citizenship to British Commonwealth immigrants after five years and imposes a ban on mixed marriages
• July 31 - Captain Kerans of the HMS Amethyst decides to make a break after nightfall under heavy fire from the Chinese People's Liberation Army both sides of the Yangtze River and successfully rejoins the fleet at Woosung the next day.

August

• August 5 - 6.75 Richter scale earthquake in Ecuador kills 6000 and destroys 50 towns.
• August 8 - Bhutan becomes independent
• August 14 - Gang of Salvatore Giuliano explodes mines under police barracks outside Palermo, Sicily
• August 14 - Military coup in Syria ousts the president
• August 28 - Last surviving veterans of the United States Civil War meet in Indianapolis - all six
• August 29 - First meeting of the Council of Europe
• August 29 - Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb, code named "Joe 1." Its design imitated the American plutonium bomb that was droped on Nagasaki in 1945.

September

• September 5 - A former sharpshooter in World War II, Howard Unruh kills 13 neighbours in Camden, New Jersey with a souvenir Luger to become America's first single-episode mass murderer.
• September 6 - Allied military authorities relinquish control of former Nazi Germany assets back to German control.
• September 7 - Federal Republic of Germany officially founded. Konrad Adenauer is the first federal chancellor.
• September 9 - Albert Guay affair: dynamite bomb destroys Canadian Pacific Airlines Douglas DC-3 in Quebec.
• September 9 - Notorious World War II veteran Edwin Alonzo Boyd commits his first career bank robbery in Toronto; surprising that he managed to steal $2006, as he'd guzzled a bottle of Irish whiskey, making him drunk.
• September 13 - Soviet Union vetoes United Nations membership of Ceylon, Finland, Iceland, Italy, Jordan and Portugal.
• September 17 - Canadian steamship SS Noronic burns in Toronto Harbour with the loss of over 118 lives.
• September 24 - Laszlo Rajk, ex-foreign minister of Hungary, is sentenced to death.
• September 29 - First Plenary Session of the National People's Congress approves design for the Flag of the People's Republic of China.
• September 29 - Mrs. Iva Toguri D'Aquino is found guilty of broadcasting for Japan as "Tokyo Rose" during World War II.
• Mervyn's reveals their first logo, used until 1994.

October-November

Flag of the People's Republic of China, founded October 1 1949

Sukarno, first President of Indonesia, elected December 16 1949

• October 1 - Birth of the People's Republic of China.
• October 7 - Democratic Republic of Germany DDR established officially
• October 13 - Severe flooding in Guatemala
• October 16 - Civil war ends in Greece - communist troops surrender
• October 17 - Chinese communist troops take Canton, China
• October 27 - Chinese communist troops fail to take Kinmen in the Battle of Kuningtou. Communist advance towards Taiwan is halted.
• October 27 - An airliner flying from Paris to New York crashes in the Azores island of São Miguel. Among the victims are violinist Ginette Neveu and boxer Marcel Cerdan.
• November 15 - Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte executed for assassinating Mahatma Gandhi.
• November 24 - Opening day at the ski resort Squaw Valley California.
• November 26 - The Indian Constituent Assembly adopts India's constitution. [1]

December

• December 2 - Boogie-Woogie King Albert Ammons dies of Alcohol Poisoning.
• December 8 - Nationalist Chinese finish their evacuation to Taiwan.
• December 10- Robert Gordon (Bob) Menzies elected.
• December 14 - Traicho Kostov, ex-vice prime minister of Bulgaria, is sentenced to death.
• December 15 - Typhoon strikes fishing fleet off Korea - several thousand reported dead.
• December 16 - Sukarno elected president of Republic of Indonesia.
• December 17 - Burma recognizes People's Republic of China.
• December 27 - Queen Juliana of the Netherlands grants Indonesia sovereignty.
• December 30 - India recognizes People's Republic of China.

unknown date

• The Fourth Geneva Convention is signed.
• Pamir is the last commercial sailing ship to sail round Cape Horn.
• The Malta Labour Party is founded
• The Vatican announced that bones uncovered in its subterranean catacombs could be the apostle Peter. 19 years later, Pope Paul VI announced confirmation that the bones belonged to this first saint. ^[1]

Births

January

• January 2 - Christopher Durang, American playwright
• January 3 - Sylvia Likens, torture victim.
• January 7 - Steven Williams, American actor
• January 8 - Wolfgang Puck, Austrian chef
• January 10 - George Foreman, American boxer
• January 10 - James Lapine, American stage director and librettist
• January 10 - Linda Lovelace, American actress (d. 2002)
• January 11 - Kalev Ots, Estonian statesman
• January 12 - Wayne Wang, Hong Kong-born film director
• January 13 - Brandon Tartikoff, American television executive (d. 1997)
• January 14 - Lawrence Kasdan, American director and screenwriter
• January 15 - Ronnie Van Zant, lead singer of Lynyrd Skynyrd (d. 1977)
• January 17 - Andy Kaufman, American comedian (d. 1984)
• January 18 - Philippe Starck, French designer
• January 19 - Robert Palmer, English musician (d. 2003)
• January 19 - Dennis Taylor, Irish snooker player
• January 20 - Göran Persson, Prime Minister of Sweden
• January 24 - John Belushi, American actor (d. 1982)
• January 30 - Peter Agre, American biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
• January 31 - Ken Wilber, American philosopher

February

• February 2 - Brent Spiner, American actor
• February 3 - Hennie Kuiper, Dutch cyclist
• February 9 - Jim Sheridan, Irish film director
• February 10 - Maxime Le Forestier, French singer
• February 10 - Harold Sylvester, American actor
• February 15 - Ken Anderson, American football player
• February 16 - Lyn Paul, English female singer
• February 18 - Gary Ridgway, American serial killer
• February 19 - Dan Bunten, American computer game designer (d. 1998)
• February 22 - Niki Lauda, Austrian race car driver
• February 25 - Ric Flair, American professional wrestler

March

• March 2 - Gates McFadden, American actress
• March 2 - Eddie Money, American singer (or March 21)
• March 2 - JPR Williams, Welsh rugby player
• March 3 - Jesse Jefferson, baseball player
• March 6 - Shaukat Aziz, Prime Minister of Pakistan
• March 6 - Martin Buchan, Scottish footballer
• March 7 - Ghulam Nabi Azad, Indian politician
• March 10 - Larry Wall, American computer programmer
• March 12 - Bill Payne, American musician (Little Feat)
• March 12 - Natalia Kuchinskaya, Soviet gymnast
• March 13 - Julia Migenes, American soprano
• March 16 - Erik Estrada, Puerto Rican actor
• March 16 - Victor Garber, Canadian actor
• March 17 - Patrick Duffy, American actor
• March 17 - Pat Rice, Irish footballer and football manager
• March 18 - Alex Higgins, Irish snooker player
• March 22 - Fanny Ardant, French actress
• March 23 - Ric Ocasek, American musician (The Cars)
• March 24 - Nick Lowe, American musician
• March 26 - Patrick Süskind, German writer
• March 30 - Marcia Ball, American musician
• March 30 - Lene Lovich, American singer
• March 30 - Naomi Sims, American model and businesswoman

April

• April 1 - Gérard Mestrallet, French businessman
• April 1 - Sammy Nelson, Irish footballer
• April 1 - Gil Scott-Heron, American musician and composer
• April 3 - Richard Thompson, British musician and songwriter
• April 6 - Horst Ludwig Störmer, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• April 7 - John Oates, American musician (Hall and Oates)
• April 14 - John Shea, American actor
• April 16 - Sandy Hawley, Canadian jockey
• April 18 - Geoff Bodine, American race car driver
• April 24 - Veronique Sanson, French singer and songwriter

May

• May 4 - John Force, American race car driver
• May 7 - Tanya Falan, American singer
• May 9 - Billy Joel, American musician
• May 13 - Zoë Wanamaker, English-American actress
• May 18 - Rick Wakeman, English musician and songwriter (Yes)
• May 18 - Bill Wallace, Canadian musician (The Guess Who)
• May 19 - Archie Manning, American football player
• May 24 - Tomaž Pisanski, Slovenian mathematician
• May 26 - Philip Michael Thomas, American actor
• May 26 - Hank Williams Jr., American singer
• May 31 - Tom Berenger, American actor

June

• June 2 - Heather Couper, British Astronomer
• June 8 - Emanuel Ax, Polish-born pianist
• June 11 - Benjamin Vasserman, Estonian artist
• June 13 - Ann Druyan, American writer
• June 14 - Jimmy Lea, English musician (Slade)
• June 14 - Harry Turtledove, American historian and novelist
• June 18 - Chris Van Allsburg, American author and illustrator
• June 18 - Lech Kaczyński, President of Poland
• June 18 - Jarosław Kaczyński, Polish politician
• June 18 - Prince Lincoln Thompson, Jamaican musician (d. 1999)
• June 21 - John Agard, British writer
• June 21 - Jane Urquhart, Canadian author
• June 27 - Vera Wang, American fashion designer

July

• July 3 - Jan Smithers, American actress
• July 11 - Ingrid Newkirk, president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)
• July 15 - Carl Bildt, Prime Minister of Sweden
• July 15 - Trevor Horn, British Singer and Producer
• July 17 - Charlie Steiner, American sportscaster
• July 22 - Alan Menken, American composer
• July 26 - Roger Taylor, English musician (Queen)

August

• August 6 - Alan Campbell, Northern Irish clergyman
• August 7 - Walid Jumblatt, leader of the Lebanese Druze
• August 12 - Mark Knopfler, British guitarist {Dire Straits)
• August 15 - Richard Deacon, Welsh sculptor
• August 23 - Shelley Long, American actress
• August 23 - Rick Springfield, Australian singer and actor
• August 25 - Martin Amis, English novelist
• August 25 - Gene Simmons, American musician (KISS)
• August 31 - Richard Gere, American actor
• August 31 - H. David Politzer, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate

September

• September 1 - P.A. Sangma, Indian politician
• September 3 - Patriarch Peter VII of Alexandria (d. 2004)
• September 7 - Lee McGeorge Durrell, American author, television presenter, and zookeeper
• September 7 - Gloria Gaynor, American singer
• September 9 - Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Current President of Indonesia.
• September 14 - Eikichi Yazawa, Japanese singer
• September 15 - Joe Barton, American politician
• September 17 - Cassandra Peterson, American actress
• September 18 - Mo Mowlam, British politician (d. 2005)
• September 19 - Twiggy Lawson, English model
• September 23 - Bruce Springsteen, American singer and songwriter
• September 26 - Jane Smiley, American novelist
• September 27 - Mike Schmidt, baseball player

October

• October 1 - Isaac Bonewits, American author and occultist
• October 7 - Ronnie Mund, American television personality
• October 8 - Sigourney Weaver, American actress
• October 12 - Carlos the jackal, Venezuelan-born mercenary
• October 14 - Katy Manning, British actress
• October 14 - Katha Pollitt, American writer
• October 20 - Valeri Borzov, Ukrainian athlete
• October 21 - Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel
• October 22 - Stiv Bators, American musician (The Dead Boys) (d. 1990)

November

• November 5 - Armin Shimerman, American actor
• November 6 - Arturo Sandoval, Cuban musician
• November 7 - Aiswarya, Queen of Nepal (d. 2001)
• November 7 - Judi Bari, American environmental activist (d. 1997)
• November 24 - Nicholas Richard Ainger, British politician
• November 25 - Kerry James O'Keeffe, Australian cricketer and commentator
• November 26 - Juanin Clay, American actress (d. 1995)
• November 28 - Alexander Godunov, Russian-born dancer and actor (d. 1995)
• November 29 - Jerry Lawler, American professional wrestler and commentator

December

• December 3 - John Akii-Bua Ugandan hurdler (d. 1997)
• December 4 - Jeff Bridges, American actor
• December 4 - Pamela Stephenson, New Zealand-born comedienne, actress, and singer
• December 7 - Tom Waits, American singer, composer, and actor
• December 12 - Bill Nighy, English actor
• December 13 - Robert Lindsey, British actor
• December 13 - Tom Verlaine, American singer/guitarist of Television
• December 14 - Bill Buckner, baseball player
• December 16 - Billy Gibbons, American guitarist (ZZ Top)
• December 17 - Paul Rodgers, British singer (Free)
• December 19 - Sebastian, Danish musician
• December 22 - Maurice Gibb, Australian musician (The Bee Gees) (d. 2003)
• December 22 - Robin Gibb, Australian musician (The Bee Gees)
• December 24 - Randy Neugebauer, American politician
• December 25 - Sissy Spacek, American actress
• December 25 - Joe Louis Walker, American musician
• December 26 - José Ramos Horta, Foreign Minister of East Timor, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize

Unknown date

• Bill Farmer, American comedian and actor
• William Hope, Canadian actor

Deaths

January-June

• January 6 - Victor Fleming, American director (b. 1883)
• January 11 - Nelson Doubleday, American publisher (b. 1889)
• January 14 - Joaquín Turina, Spanish composer (b. 1882)
• January 28 - Jean-Pierre Wimille, French race car driver (b. 1908)
• February 12 - Imam Hassan al Banna, Egyptian founder of the Muslim Brotherhood (b. 1906)
• March 30 - Friedrich Bergius, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1884)
• April 18 - Will Hay, British comedian and actor (b. 1888)
• April 19 - Ulrich Salchow, Swedish figure skater (b. 1877)
• May 6 - Maurice Maeterlinck, Belgian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1862)
• May 9 - Louis II, Prince of Monaco (b. 1870)
• May 22 - James Forrestal, U.S. Secretary of Navy and Defense (suicide) (b. 1892)
• May 22 - Klaus Mann, German writer (suicide) (b. 1906)
• June 10 - Sigrid Undset, Norwegian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1882)
• June 14 - Russell Doubleday, American author and publisher (b. 1872)
• June 25 - Buck Freeman, baseball player (b. 1871)

July-December

• July 9 - Fritz Bennicke Hart, English-born composer (b. 1874)
• July 12 - Douglas Hyde, first President of Ireland (b. 1860)
• July 18 - Vítězslav Novák, Czech composer (b. 1870)
• August 16 - Margaret Mitchell, American writer (b. 1900)
• August 18 - Paul Mares, American musician (b. 1900)
• August 30 - Arthur Fielder, English cricketer (b. 1877)
• September 8 - Richard Strauss, German composer (b. 1864)
• September 13 - August Krogh, Danish zoophysiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1874)
• September 19 - Will Cuppy, American humorist (b. 1884)
• September 19 - George Shiels, Irish writer (b. 1886)
• September 19 - Nikolaos Skalkottas, Greek composer (b. 1901)
• October 27 - Marcel Cerdan, French boxer (plane crash) (b. 1916)
• October 27 - Ginette Neveu, French violinist (plane crash) (b. 1919)
• December 6 - Leadbelly, American musician (b. 1885)
• December 11 - Krishna Chandra Bhattacharya, Indian philosopher (b. 1875)
• December 16 - Sidney Olcott, Canadian film director (b. 1873)
• December 28 - Hervey Allen, American author (b. 1889)
• December 28 - Jack Lovelock, New Zealand athlete (b. 1910)

Nobel prizes

• Physics - Yukawa Hideki
• Chemistry - William Francis Giauque
• Medicine - Walter Rudolf Hess, Antonio Caetano De Abreu Freire Egas Moniz
• Literature - William Faulkner
• Peace - John Boyd Orr

References

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